Bayer takes big lead in third round of Social Madness

Six companies have moved on to the third and final local round of Social Madness, presented by Spark Business from Capital One, and sponsored locally by the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.

The companies remaining in the competition include: Pittsburgh Human Resources Association vs. Keystone Compliance in the small company category (1-99 employees); Smail Auto Group vs. Alpern Rosenthal in the medium company category (100-499 employees); and Ansys Inc. vs. Bayer Corp. in the large company category (500+ employees). These are all that remain from nearly 100 companies that started the challenge, which pits firms against each other to measure their social-media prowess.

It's a tight race in the small-company category. As of midmorning, the Pittsburgh Human Resources Association and Keystone Compliance were tied with 1,319 points. Eliminated from the last round in this category were Z Brand and Fourth Economy.

In the medium-company category, Smail Auto Group (1,158) had a strong lead over Alpern Rosenthal (165). ARDEX Americas and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra were eliminated in the previous round.

Voting in this round continues until July 16. The local winners will be announced July 17, one in each of the three categories. Since this is a national competition, the winners in each of 43 cities nationwide (including Pittsburgh) will move on to the national competition. So will the top 21 runners-up in each of the categories.

The national competition will begin July 24 with 64 entrants in each of the three size categories.

The three national winners — one each in the small, medium and large categories — will be announced Sept. 11. A charitable donation will be made on behalf of the three national winners.

Visit the Social Madness website to vote for your favorites in the Pittsburgh region. You also can connect to the companies or interact with them via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.